Sceptical Meerkat
Jul 22, 2017 · 1 min read

At some point German authorities decided that everyone has to have a last name. So they started assigning German-sounding last names to Jews, often randomly, issuing them with papers. If one did not want to have a last name that did not sound well, one would pay a bribe and ask for something better. This is why Ashkenazi Jews often have German-sounding names.

Interestingly that those who moved to Israel sometimes changed their names they were born with in different countries to names that sounded more Jewish. E.g. the Prime Minister during 6-day war, Golda Meir, started her life as Golda Meyerson. Shimon Peres used to be Szymon Perski. Or their first prime minister David Ben-Gurion born David Grün.

    Sceptical Meerkat

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